Customer Acquisition

There are numerous digital channels which you can wield for Customer Acquisition and they will all effect your business KPIs. You need to ensure they’re aligned with your ‘offline’ channels too, ensuring when your prospect visits your site they know they’re in the right place. Some digital channels you will leverage more then others and often the key to success is identifying the channels which will work best for your business. However, in this day and age you can’t just choose one. Potential customers will come from more then one direction and will more then likely check you out through a number of channels open to them before they commit to a purchase. It’s not enough to do just Google Adwords, if you don’t have a Social presence you automatically become less trusted.

Here’s some of the digital channels you should be considering when looking to acquire new customers:

Pay Per Click (PPC) – The best example of PPC is Google Adwords or Pricerunner where you’re paying to advertise on Search Engines to drive you traffic

Social – Enabling you and your brand to ‘engage’ with potential customers, fans and brand enthusiasts. It also offers transparency and re-enforces your credibility

Affiliate – A third party website which drives you traffic, if they convert to a sale then you award them a commission

Partnerships – Working with other third party entities like charities, white label products or a delivery supplier

Data and eCRM – Acquiring an email address and keeping engaged with your customers through newsletters, promotions and regular contact

Referral – Other customers recommending their family, friends and colleagues

Online PR – Many journalists go online to find stories and conduct their research and…so makes sense to create online articles and place them in the right places for them to find

Operation, Postage & Packing – May not strictly be considered a channel but it is absolutely vital to the success of any e-commerce site

Checkout Abandonment Rate – The checkout process is where you can easily loose potential sales. You can regain some of these with a good eCRM strategy and/or Mouse Movement Tracking but by offering a seamless and easy checkout process you will reduce additional work

Market Places – Use the Market Places like Amazon, eBay an Rakuten as additional store fronts to sell your wares

The above list is by no means exhaustive but does give you an idea on some of the customer acquisition channels available to you